Self-sealing materials are sometimes used in fuel tanks to reduce fuel loss and/or the risk of explosion resulting from punctures of the fuel tanks due to gunfire and/or other causes. In some examples of self-sealing fuel tanks, fuel and/or fuel additives in the fuel tank and self-sealing materials used in the fuel tank react with one another to create a seal. Thus, if fuel begins leaking out of the fuel tank, a reaction between the fuel and/or fuel additives and the self-sealing materials can cause swelling that operates to seal holes in the fuel tank.
New materials and fuel additives are developed frequently. As such, fuel tanks, fuels, fuel additives, and various other aspects of self-sealing fuel tanks are often subjected to testing to evaluate expected performance of the self-sealing fuel tanks. As such, the self-sealing materials can be evaluated for combat or other situations in which the fuel tanks may be punctured or otherwise leak.
Test fixtures exist for subjecting self-sealing materials to gunfire testing. Some example test fixtures include an aluminum housing that is sometimes secured to a steel frame. A fuel tank formed from self-sealing material is disposed within the aluminum housing. The test fixture is tested with gunfire or other penetration methods and performance of the self-sealing material thus can be evaluated.
In conventional test fixtures, however, gauging how much fuel is lost during the test and/or determining how long the wound takes to heal are difficult to gauge. Also, the conventional test fixtures can cause and/or exacerbate hydrodynamic ram and projectile coring, two phenomena that can prevent sealing of the self-sealing material and as such, failure of the fuel tank testing. Furthermore, it can be difficult to access the test sample due to the construction and/or materials of the housing.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure made herein is presented.